Fairbury business to supply truck motors to Tasmanian mining company

Wednesday

Jan 23, 2013 at 12:01 AMJan 23, 2013 at 11:52 PM

Cynthia Grau

A Fairbury-based company recently signed a contract with a Tasmanian mining company, potentially allowing for an expansion and new jobs for the county.EVT Global is a company that designs and manufactures custom direct drive permanent magnet motors and generators. Gregory Benoit, president and CEO of EVT Global, said that the contract with HAULMAX, its first international customer, could bring about 20 new jobs to the area after this year.“That’s the plan,” Benoit maintained. “Right now, we are in a developmental stage where we built prototypes in relatively low volumes. We’re talking five to ten motors and generators for them this year. After this year, we’re hoping to scale up the production to produce those prototypes for them on a production scale. It’s hard to say at this time, depending on volume, but we’re hoping to add an additional 20 employees, at least.”Adam Dontz, CEO of the Greater Livingston County Economic Development Council explained that a loan for $200,000 to the company will also help with the addition of employees in the future.“To promote economic activity and job creation with a locally based company – EVT Global – the GLCEDC made a seven year loan to the company,” Dontz explained. “The loan proceeds are for purchasing equipment, which will allow EVT to meet the demand of current work orders and allow it to use its resources to hire additional employees.”Benoit said that EVT Global is the offspring of another company, which formed in 2006.“We have a total of about 15 employees, some full-time and some part-time. Most of the core business happens in Fairbury,” he said. “Some of our more notable customers include the U.S. Navy, Trek bicycle company, K2H Wind Power and, most recently, HAULMAX.” The relationship between HAULMAX and EVT Global is thanks to one of its investors.“One of our investors is a large Caterpillar dealer and this Tasmanian mining company buys a lot of parts from Caterpillar. They use the Cat engines and suspension components. They had become friends over the years and our investor turned them on to us, telling them that our technology can really help them and give them a really unique product. That was about two years ago that we started working with HAULMAX. We just signed the contract at the end of October,” Benoit said.If the jobs become available after larger-scale production begins, Benoit said that the jobs that will be available would not be minimum-wage positions.“These are going to have to be highly skilled employees. Good wages and benefits will come along with those jobs,” he said. “We’re very excited about it. We’re excited for the opportunity to hopefully bring more jobs to the community. One thing we’ve found in this area is there are a lot of skilled people who are willing to work very hard and that’s been instrumental in our success and we’re looking forward to hiring more people.”